Critic Harders out to unseat Wilcox

A 20-year veteran of Maricopa County politics will face a personal critic in the supervisors District 5 race Nov. 6.

Democrat Mary Rose Wilcox was first elected in 1992 to the county Board of Supervisors to represent the heavily Democratic District 5 in the southwest Valley.

Her Republican challenger, Ron Harders, is a self-employed conservative who has been a precinct committeeman and involved with the state Republican Party.

Harders, 77, a "tea party" member, qualified for the general-election ballot by running as a write-in candidate in the primary election. His main goal in running against Wilcox is to see her out of office.

"My first priority has to be to defeat millionaire Mary Rose and bring real representation to District 5," Harders said, referring to a $975,000 settlement that the county offered to Wilcox for a lawsuit she filed.

Wilcox, 62, sued the county, claiming damages from failed prosecutions by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and then-County Attorney Andrew Thomas. Wilcox was one of their main political targets. She is the only county supervisor running for re-election who has sued the county.

After Thomas was ordered disbarred for ethical misconduct earlier this year, the county and Wilcox's attorneys agreed in mediation to settle her suit. But that settlement is pending an appeal, and the county has not yet paid it.

"Here in the United States, we have a very strong judicial system. ... I felt it's a lesson for other people not to be persecuted the way I was," Wilcox said. "Yes, I sued. But I didn't do the mediation on it. That's what the mediator felt I should get."

The Board of Supervisors oversees the operations and the $2.3 billion annual budget of the nation's fourth-most-populous county.

District 5 includes Guadalupe, Gila Bend, the Gila River Indian Community, Tolleson and parts of Phoenix, Glendale, Goodyear, Avondale and Buckeye.

Registration in the district is 44 percent Democratic and 17 percent Republican, according to county voter-registration figures. About 38 percent of voters are registered as "other."

Wilcox, the lone Democrat and woman on the board for 20 years, said if she is re-elected, her priorities will include continuing to help southwest Valley cities that need county resources. As an advocate of affordable housing, Wilcox said she would continue working with the county's Housing Authority to provide more low-income housing units and work with the county's Industrial Development Authority to set up a first-time homebuyers program.

Harders said he has been self-employed since 1969 and has held a variety of jobs, including salesman, headhunter and cost analyst.

He said that, based on his experiences, he wants to tighten up the county's spending and budget.

If elected supervisor, Harders wants to support Arpaio and his anti-illegal-immigration efforts and "getting the courts to be more effective as far as illegal-immigration lawsuits, et cetera, by exerting pressure on them, trying to work with the federal government in the way that ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) people would want to arrest and deport illegals, especially those who are involved in criminal activity.

"Mary Rose Wilcox has been representing Mexico and Mexican interests longer than she's been representing anybody in her district."

Wilcox said although she has been advocating for civil rights and has spoken up on immigration issues, she has not neglected her duties as a county supervisor.

She added that, in her most recent term, immigration became an especially important issue for her constituents and that she spoke up as a community leader and a Mexican-American. District 5 is the most heavily minority county district.

"There was never a time when somebody called me and I said, 'Oh, I'm too busy with immigration,' " Wilcox said.

MEET THE CANDIDATES

Ronald R. Harders

Age: 77.

Family: Married, three daughters, three grandchildren.

Work experience: Self-employed since 1969 in various jobs, including salesman, driving instructor, headhunter, computer programmer, business owner and cost analyst.